Inside a tan, nondescript building at a commercial strip center in Garland is the latest independent craft brewery to debut in North Texas.

Lakewood Brewing Co. opened in late August, joining a wave of entrepreneurs starting microbrewing operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

At a time when capital is hard to obtain for small businesses — especially for those like production breweries that can require five-figure cash outlays — at least three other craft breweries have opened their taps in the past 10 months: Deep Ellum Brewing Co.; FireWheel Brewing Co. in Rowlett and Peticolas Brewing Co. near Stemmons Freeway.

And more are on their way.

Despite regulatory and financial challenges, these entrepreneurs say they’re following their passion for craft beer and responding to growing consumer demand for new and unique beers in a huge market like Texas that has plenty of room for competitors.

Talk to Lakewood founder Wim Bens, and he ticks off numbers that back his business model: Texas is second in the nation in beer consumption but only 45th in the number of breweries per capita.

“That’s a big gap. We and a lot of people are trying to fill that gap,” Bens said. “Craft beer as a whole is in a boom. People want to experience local things, and beer is local.”

The craft beer revival here is reflected statewide and nationally.

For the first time last year, U.S. sales volume of craft beer surpassed 5 percent of the total beer market, while overall sales fell, according to the Brewers Association, a trade group for craft brewers.

Meanwhile, the number of craft breweries operating in the U.S. rose to 1,940 last year, up from 1,749 in 2010.

In Texas, the number of small craft beer manufacturers increased to 78 last year, from 52 in 2010, according to an economic impact study released in June by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.

Texas beer drinkers consume 20 million barrels annually, but less than 1 percent of that is made by breweries in the state, said Scott Metzger, an economics professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio who conducted the study.

“Because we’re a little further behind, we won’t suffer from oversaturation,” said Metzger, who is also founder and chief executive of Freetail Brewing Co., a brewpub in San Antonio that opened in 2008.

Tough competition

D-FW’s newest breweries compete with each other and with more established craft operators like Rahr & Sons Brewing in Fort Worth and Franconia Brewing Co. in McKinney as well as regional and national powerhouses like Anheuser-Busch.

Only a few entrepreneurs survived the first wave of craft brewery openings in the late ’80s to early ’90s in Texas, said Tim Schwartz, president of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.

The timing is right today for a resurgence of young entrepreneurs to try their hand at the business as Texas consumers develop more discerning taste for beer, said Schwartz, who is also director of brewing operations at Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco in the Hill Country.

Setting aside passion among beer entrepreneurs, opening a brewery is not without risks. Last year, 25 brewpubs and 12 microbreweries closed, according to the Brewers Association.

Starting a brew operation could cost between $400,000 and $2 million, depending on several factors, including size and brewing capacity and whether it’s a brewpub or production facility only, according to entrepreneurs.

Equipment also is pricey. Case in point: New stainless steel kegs can cost $130 to $150 apiece.

Deep Ellum founders John Reardon and Dallas attorneys Scott Frieling and Jim Piel cobbled together a mix of their own money, private investors, a Small Business Administration loan and other sources to open the microbrewery in November.

Reardon said a brewery was an “incredibly tough sell” to banks, which did not seem to understand the beer business. In all, the project cost just shy of $2 million, which included brewing equipment, tanks and real estate, Reardon said.

The 10-employee operation has built more than 200 accounts locally, in Houston and as far away as Boston.

“We’re constantly growing,” Reardon said. “If we had better access to capital, we would probably triple” the staff.

Taking the plunge

Bens, of Lakewood Brewing, left his job as a creative director of a local advertising company to open the brewery. Other employees at the ad agency, including his wife, joined Bens to start the beer venture.

“We all left our well-paying jobs to work for beer,” Bens said, only half joking.

Born in Belgium, Bens grew up in Texas with an appreciation of Belgian beer from an early age. He dabbled in home brewing, an interest that evolved into something more when he began winning local and national beer competitions, Bens said.

Bens got more serious with brewing, graduating from the American Brewers Guild’s program in 2010 and apprenticing at Rahr & Sons the next year. Taking a leap to open a brewery was the next logical step, Bens said.

Instead of turning to banks, Bens recruited private investors from a close knit of social networks and secured an 11,000-square-foot facility in Garland. Lakewood’s startup costs fit somewhere in the $800,000-to-$1.6 million range, according to Bens.

As with many startups, Bens and his staff have trimmed costs where they can, such as renovating the tasting room with the help of family and self-distributing the product, while looking for additional revenue streams as they build the business.

Lakewood Brewing is one of several new breweries that offer weekend tours, giving customers a glimpse of the operations as well as a sample of the local beer for $10.

“As a startup, it’s an awesome revenue stream,” Bens said.

But the tours also reveal what craft brewers call a competitive disadvantage: They cannot sell beer directly to the public, a law that the Texas Craft Brewers Guild will try to change again in the upcoming legislative session.

For now, Lakewood is available in more than 40 eateries and bars throughout Dallas. Lakewood sells only kegs, but it hopes to start bottling in October.

Because of his heritage, Bens and his staff try to inject a Belgian twist into each of Lakewood’s beers. The brewery’s year-round selection includes Rock Ryder, an American rye beer; Hop Trapp, a Belgian-style India pale ale; Temptress, an imperial milk stout; and Lakewood Lager.

Despite the growing competition, Bens sees only friends among other beer entrepreneurs in the area, noting that they have shared equipment and advice.

“The rising tide lifts us all,” he said. “We’re out there to help each other and help to kick the crappy beer off the shelves and make it a craft beer world.”

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.